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123456
Avatar: The Results
2009-12-18, 3:51 PM #1
It was pretty awesome. Not a life changing movie or anything, but pretty awesome. The visual effects seemed real. The 3d was done amazingly well. The action was incredible.

The plot and conflict were nothing new. We all know about the various tropes employed in the story. Fish out of water, Noble Savages, Big Bad Guy, etc...

Given the rather rudimentary nature of the plot, every aspect of the world was extraordinarily well thought out. I was shocked at how much thought was put into every aspect of this brand new ecosystem. Really cool stuff.

Also, the computer generated characters seemed alive. I mean ALIVE. I stopped noticing they were computer generated about 30 minutes in and just started looking at them as characters. Really breathtaking stuff.

In the end, it was a really really good action movie. I liked the characters I was supposed to like, and hated the characters I was supposed to hate.

I'd say it'll probably win some awards.
>>untie shoes
2009-12-18, 3:59 PM #2
Visual effects oscar for sure.
2009-12-18, 4:32 PM #3
Yea, I'm gonna see it this weekend.
I'll probably see it Sunday, my brother gets in town.
2009-12-18, 5:24 PM #4
From what I hear it's a generic action movie meant to show off pretty art. Yes, it does have pretty art, but I don't know if I'll see it if that's all it's offering.
2009-12-18, 6:34 PM #5
You're partly right CM. Only thing is it's a REALLY good action movie with an incredible attention to detail that happens to show off really pretty art.

It's really breathtaking. It's an entire new world that seems totally plausible. It's so ****ing cool it's hard to explain. The more I think about the little details in this movie the more I love it. It's so badass.
>>untie shoes
2009-12-18, 7:06 PM #6
Could the main character be more badass? I don't think he could be. :awesome:
DO NOT WANT.
2009-12-18, 8:24 PM #7
I'm about to rehash the ENTIRE PLOT right now:

Big Bad Americans come storming in on unknown territory want a large quantity of valuable stuff. People all ready claim land over said valuable stuff. Big Bad Americans try to force people off. People say "**** you go away." Along comes a strategem involving the Protagonist in which he is disabled some how. An offer is presented to him that will regain 100% mobility/health if s/he is willing to cooperate with their Evil Plot. Protagonist is mutated into being one of them. Protagonist meets presumably the most attractive version of this species that is opposite his gender. Protagonist falls in love with said "female." Protagonist develops feelings for the people's plight and turns against the Big Bad Americans and ultimately either convinces them to desist their operation or rallies the troops against the Big Bad Americans and crushes them beneath their heel. The Big Bad Americans are left without nothing except a lesson in "conquering is bad mmkay."

Yes, James Cameron, we get it. We suck. Americans have a rather poor history when it comes to the treatment of the Natives of this land some 150 odd years ago. I fully accept the fact that we were no different from any other nation in history and that if we want something, we'll take it by any means necessary. Welcome to humanity.

The plot is played out, overdone, rehashed, and BORING! All this movie really is going for is the "ooooooh...ahhhhh" factor.
Code to the left of him, code to the right of him, code in front of him compil'd and thundered. Programm'd at with shot and $SHELL. Boldly he typed and well. Into the jaws of C. Into the mouth of PERL. Debug'd the 0x258.
2009-12-18, 8:25 PM #8
It was awesome. I kinda felt like I was watching Star Wars all over again.
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2009-12-18, 10:42 PM #9
I rather enjoyed the movie, which is surprising because:

a) I underestimated Cameron's ability to really wow me with visuals (stupid on my part).

b) I expected the formulaic plot to drag my experience down. It did not -- given characters I care about and a world that engages me, the formula is not one to cough at.

c) It felt like a movie that could take place in the Alien universe, which is a plus for me.
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2009-12-19, 12:14 AM #10
It was Pocahontas for the first 2/3 of the movie!!

It was absolutely gorgeous, the music was great, but during the little montage of her training him I kept expecting her to have him paint with all the colors of the wind. I think that broke it a little for me at times.
Fincham: Where are you going?
Me: I have no idea
Fincham: I meant where are you sitting. This wasn't an existential question.
2009-12-19, 2:25 AM #11
Did anyone else see it in 3D (or, for that matter, Imax)?

Frickin AWESOME.

Even if you don't see it in Imax, experience it in 3d because you might not be able to when it hits dvd/blueray. My dad and I agreed that we'd have to see it again to determine if it would be as good in 2d as in 3d.
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2009-12-19, 3:39 AM #12
I thought 3D would be pretty much a cool gimmick. I was wrong. I want all my favourite movie's re-shot with this ****, jesus.
2009-12-19, 6:55 AM #13
Oh I saw it in 3D - like I said, absolutely gorgeous. Beyond gorgeous.

Can you paint with all the colors of the wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind?
Fincham: Where are you going?
Me: I have no idea
Fincham: I meant where are you sitting. This wasn't an existential question.
2009-12-19, 7:13 AM #14
I don't get it. He was a human being. These alien *****es are not attractive, they look like big blue cats. I guess ried would like them, but. They do nothing to my loins. So this guy gets turned into one. Presumably he's still human, he just looks like one. He still has human biology, human feelings, human attractions... and he falls in love with one? How was he sexual attracted to it?

The main character is a furry.
2009-12-19, 8:42 AM #15
The second they said unobtainium I looked at fishstickz and asked if we could leave. I was SERIOUSLY considering just walking out of the theatre right then.

I feel like they poured bazillions of dollars into the visual effects, and couldn't come up with a better name than that? I mean, that's like calling it rareonium or hardtogetium.
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2009-12-19, 8:55 AM #16
Well they had originally called it commitgenocidetogetium but it didn't screen well with test audiences. Their next option, getitwe'rebadguysium didn't fare much better.
Fincham: Where are you going?
Me: I have no idea
Fincham: I meant where are you sitting. This wasn't an existential question.
2009-12-19, 9:34 AM #17
I thought that unobtainium was a joke name being made up by that character (the smarmy little ******* guy). :gonk:
DO NOT WANT.
2009-12-19, 9:41 AM #18
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

Yeah I suppose using a real scientific name for something which fits the paradigm is just a BAD idea.
>>untie shoes
2009-12-19, 9:45 AM #19
no way :O

well I sure feel dumb now
DO NOT WANT.
2009-12-19, 11:58 AM #20
Ha! Interesting
Fincham: Where are you going?
Me: I have no idea
Fincham: I meant where are you sitting. This wasn't an existential question.
2009-12-19, 12:37 PM #21
Originally posted by Antony:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

Yeah I suppose using a real scientific name for something which fits the paradigm is just a BAD idea.


Originally posted by Wikipedia:
Unobtainium is a facetious term


?

I understand the origin but it'd be like naming the blue chick "L'ov Entresst"
2009-12-19, 1:04 PM #22
Quote:
Originally Posted by Antony View Post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

Yeah I suppose using a real scientific name for something which fits the paradigm is just a BAD idea.


Quote:
Unobtainium is a facetious term


Facetious:

Quote:
Humour or humor (see spelling differences) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement.


You fail so hard it's not even funny at this point. It's not a real scientific term. It's directly related to making something up to sound humorous. LOL
2009-12-19, 1:08 PM #23
Or you could read the entire article instead of the first bit and NOT look like a moron who is trying desperately to split hairs.
>>untie shoes
2009-12-19, 1:10 PM #24
I'm not. It's not a scientific term. I dare you to find any article written by a scientist that uses that word. Or a video, or anything by any credible source other than a wiki link. Anything other than someone using it in their speech as science slang. I want an article that uses it in a proper grammatical format, not an example from wikipedia of someone using it in their speech to describe something as a silly anecdote (given below). PS you still fail and Tibby makes the best point.

Quote:
For example, during the development and service period of the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, engineers working for Lockheed Corporation at the Skunk Works used the term unobtainium as a dysphemism for titanium.


All it gives is an example of a bunch of guys using it to describe something they found hard to get. That hardly makes it a widely used scientific term that's been coined in various uses aside from a bunch of guys in an assembly line.


Quote:
More recently "unobtainium" has come to be used as a synonym for "unobtainable" among people who are neither science fiction fans nor engineers, to denote an object that actually exists, but which is very hard to obtain either because of high price (Sometimes referred to as "Unaffordium") or limited availability.[7][8][9] It usually refers to a very high-end and desirable product, e.g. in the mountain biking community, "These titanium hubs are unobtainium, man!", or a first-time indie film director saying that a sound stage to film in would be unobtainium.


Quote:
There have been repeated attempts to attribute the name to a real material. Because of the long-standing usage of the term "unobtainium" within the space elevator research community to describe a material with the necessary characteristics, LiftPort Group President, Michael Laine has advocated assigning the term as the generic name for cables woven of carbon nanotube fibers, which do seem to have met the requirements for this application. Since he claimed that sufficiently long nanotube cables will be prohibitively expensive to develop without inexpensive access to microgravity, these cables would still be close enough to unobtainable to meet the definition. However, this usage does not seem to have become widespread at this time.


Wow. Sounds so scientific. I wish I were as smart as you so that I could know words used by few and far between and then try to be a dick about it when the general populace doesn't even know of it :)
2009-12-19, 1:11 PM #25
So should I see the 3D or the normal?

Does the 3D mean I have to wear those stupid red/blue glasses?
2009-12-19, 1:11 PM #26
Oh it also happens to be the name of a common trope used in storytelling.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Unobtainium

Like it or not, it's not a case of "man they couldn't think of a better name for it."

It's a case of "they didn't feel like thinking up a name for it, so they just used the generic term for what it represents."

EDIT: Furthermore, it is, in fact, a name for any material which would suit a purpose which no material exists for. This is a term used in engineering.
>>untie shoes
2009-12-19, 1:19 PM #27
Again, give me a link aside from wikipedia to show that this is a generally utilized scientific term. Other than that, you've got nothing but a wiki link that basically says "it was a bunch of guys, trying to think of a word for something they couldn't obtain, and a lot of people still don't even know of it or use the word".


Just so you know, storytelling often involves the making up of words to describe things, places, people, objects, and pretty much anything.
2009-12-19, 1:24 PM #28
And you're still desperately trying to split hairs.
>>untie shoes
2009-12-19, 1:25 PM #29
I guess I am. But then again, you providing a solid scientific link seems to be unobtanium ;)
2009-12-19, 1:28 PM #30
What you're asking for is like saying you don't believe any scientists use the term 'douche bag' because there aren't any scientific papers where someone refers to someone else a a 'douche bag'.
>>untie shoes
2009-12-19, 1:42 PM #31
Oh jesus you are arguing about the name of a fictional metal.
2009-12-19, 1:44 PM #32
Originally posted by Antony:
What you're asking for is like saying you don't believe any scientists use the term 'douche bag' because there aren't any scientific papers where someone refers to someone else a a 'douche bag'.


Are you saying the material is actually not called unobtanium?
2009-12-19, 2:02 PM #33
Okay well regardless of the origin of the name, the movie used overly simplistic characters and used (often cliched) shorthand rather than really delve into the characters, leaving us with rather (ironically) 1 or 2 dimensional characters. It was entirely predictable - I don't have a problem with old storylines, I just can't call a movie outstanding for not doing anything new with it (I'm obviously not talking about visually). Ham handed character development, predictable plot, a little bit of deus ex machina thrown in there. It wasn't a terrible movie, but for those reasons I can't call it a great one.

(I'm telling you: daughter of the chief, promised to someone already picked out but falls for the outsider, teaches him her ways and how to understand people - even a Grandmother Willow type situation. Pocahontas was never my favorite Disney movie but I really feel the need to watch it now!)

It was, however, absolutely stunning visually. An excellent work of visual art - Squirrel King - see it in 3D without a doubt.
Fincham: Where are you going?
Me: I have no idea
Fincham: I meant where are you sitting. This wasn't an existential question.
2009-12-19, 2:12 PM #34
So is it with glasses or just the way it's projected?
2009-12-19, 2:15 PM #35
It's with glasses, but not with the red/blue ones. These glasses are different
Fincham: Where are you going?
Me: I have no idea
Fincham: I meant where are you sitting. This wasn't an existential question.
2009-12-19, 2:18 PM #36
Seeing it tonight in IMAX 3D.
"Honey, you got real ugly."
2009-12-19, 3:04 PM #37
3D effect has never worked for me, but atleast with this kind you don't get colour retardation and can just take off the glasses to watch the movie normally.
2009-12-19, 3:45 PM #38
One of the scientists reminded me of Kip from Napoleon Dynamite. At one point he says, "If they reach the tree of souls we're pretty much screwed." and I laughed for about a minute.
2009-12-19, 3:52 PM #39
Originally posted by Tibby:
3D effect has never worked for me, but atleast with this kind you don't get colour retardation and can just take off the glasses to watch the movie normally.

If you don't wear the glasses the movie will be really fuzzy and screwed up looking like you've got your eyes crossed the entire time.
>>untie shoes
2009-12-19, 6:06 PM #40
Just got back. The 3D times didn't work for me .. and $10 was more than enough for a ticket. (Even though I didn't pay :ninja: the heck with paying $15 for a movie ticket .. I miss paying $3.00 back back in high school)

Good flick. Enjoyable. Not "omfg awesome." I thought the movie would have been better if they made the "ok im a marine now im gonna go postal on my real brothers and save my blue brothers" story more believable (instead of maybe the love story?)
123456

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